Description
Book SynopsisWith a foreword by well-known neuroscientist Alain Berthoz, The Style of Gestures convincingly makes the case that embodied cognition is essential to the reception, understanding, and enjoyment of art and literature.
Trade ReviewWhat is remarkable about The Style of Gestures... is that it combines a precisely grounded model from neuroscience with persuasive readings of texts across a wide historical range, from medieval works such as Gawain and the Green Knight via Shakespeare and Milton to Joyce and Proust. Guillemette Bolens is a medievalist and a comparatist, and she is always sensitive to the cultural constraints within which her readings must operate: no one could accuse her of reductive universalism or anachronism. Her work thus provides a powerful and persuasive example of what a cognitive literary criticism can achieve. -- Terence Cave Times Literary Supplement This book successfully translates its analytic tools and interpretative frameworks beyond the page into the reader's next reading experience and, perhaps, social encounter. As Bolens writes, 'literature is powerful because, more than any other type of discourse, it triggers the activation of unpredicted sensorimotor configurations and surprises the mind with its own imaginative and cognitive possibilities.' -- Rebecca Dobson MAKE: A Literary Magazine The Style of Gestures brings interdisciplinary research from the field of embodied cognition to medieval textual criticism, and the results are remarkable... Bolens's work demonstrates the clear advantages of embracing the shift towards embodied cognition. -- Melissa Raine Parergon
Table of ContentsForeword by Alain Berthoz
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Body in Literature
2. Kinesic Tropes and Action Verbs
3. Verecundia and Social Wounding in the Legend of Lucrece
4. Face-work and Ambiguous Feats in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
